


4 Steps

by vaderina



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Attempted Kidnapping, Grindelwald's mastermind of a plan, Humour, M/M, Mentions of mild animal abuse, You got played sir
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 14:12:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15463155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaderina/pseuds/vaderina
Summary: Grindelwald has a solid four step plan for kidnapping someone. His next victim is Newt.





	4 Steps

Kidnapping someone isn’t easy business. Thankfully Grindelwald had a tried and tested method that took him through a step by step guide to success. His next target was Newt, the pesky idiot who ruined his plans for obtaining and controlling an obscurus. So Grindelwald had a victim in mind, now he simply needed to work through his process one step at a time and he’ll have Newt out of his way.

**Step 1. Know your victim**

It was a fairly obvious thing but in Grindelwald’s experience a lot of people somehow forgot this first crucial step. He already knew enough about Newt to know he needed to be careful. The man was wily and resourceful, not shying away from unconventional or even frowned upon methods. He’d already bested Grindelwald once and it wasn’t going to happen again. This time Grindelwald would exact his revenge and either make Newt see sense and join him or he was going to disappear from the world in a rather permanent manner.

**Step 2. Have a location**

This was perhaps more simple than Grindelwald had planned. Despite his unconventional behaviour Newt was still a rather predictable man. Recently he’d been frequenting an out of the way beach in the hopes of finding the local mer-population amenable to coexisting with some of the creatures from his case that needed to find a new home. So far he’d had no luck and that was in part down to Grindelwald scaring the merfolk away. Still, it left Newt in the perfect position for Grindelwald’s plan. The beach was in a quiet, out of the way place. Newt would spend all day there, patiently waiting and working on his manuscript while he kept half an eye on the sea. Nobody came by to see him so if Grindelwald made a move he’d have hours before anybody raised an alarm. It was perfect and Grindelwald rubbed his hands together with glee. This was shaping up to be the most effortless kidnapping.

**Step 3. Have a lure**

This was perhaps the most difficult part of the process in Newt’s instance. There weren’t many things the man would leap head first into danger for. Or rather, there were many things but none of them were things that any sane person would have lying around. Some people were object oriented, they were the easiest. Leave a valuable looking pendant out and they’d fall for it. Or a nice wad of cash. Others were more people oriented. Those were the ones Grindelwald enjoyed the most. It was a like a series of kidnappings to work his way up to the grand prize. Unfortunately Newt’s closest friends and family were all aurors. Theseus would have put up too much of a fight and teamed up with Newt too easily to make his abduction worth Newt’s attention. The other person was Percival who Grindelwald had already made off with once. A second time wasn’t going to work, especially since everyone at MACUSA fawned around him now like protective little puppies. Some days Grindelwald just wasn’t in the mood to kick his way through metaphorical puppies to get to the main bitch. So no, in Newt’s case he wasn’t going to be swayed by the material world or humans. Instead Grindelwald put out a bounty for a nundu. It had to be alive but a little beaten up. Despite his reputation Grindelwald didn’t actually enjoy torture or inflicting pain on an innocent party. So he paid someone else to do it for him. Knowing what he did about Newt, the man was far more likely to rush in without thinking if the beast in question was injured.

Everything was in place. Grindelwald had his victim, a location and the lure. Now it was time for the final step and then he’ll have Newt in his control.

**Step 4. Execute the plan**

Grindelwald got up early to prepare. He needed to transport the nundu (subdued for now) to the beach where Newt was going to be searching and waiting for merfolk fruitlessly. An hour before Newt’s usual arrival he went to the beach and laid the nundu out carefully in the shaded part of the beach. There was no need to be a monster and make a creature suffer more than it had to for his ploy to work. The drugs that kept the nundu complacent should only take another 50 minutes to start wearing off so by the time Newt got there he’d be dealing with a dazed but fairly active nundu. The perfect distraction.

It all went according to plan. Grindelwald watched, hidden by a notice-me-not charm as right on time Newt turned up. He spotted the staggering nundu immediately and was rushing over. Briefly Grindelwald contemplated letting the man get to the creature and be knocked around for a bit just to make him less resistant to capture. Then he remembered who he was dealing with, to let Newt near the nundu ran the risk of the man charming the beast to his command with a simple smile and “hello”. That just wasn’t going to do.

Stepping out of the shadow and letting the charm fall Grindelwald revealed himself, wand raised. He expected Newt to step back in surprise, maybe even gasp at the flawless dramatics. Instead he caught the beginnings of a smirk before Newt called out a sharp “now”. Something thudded into his back, it made him stumble, and his wand fell from his hand. A low hiss in his ear had Grindelwald turning to face the skull like maw of a swooping evil.

“Bess,” Newt called, “have your revenge.”

The nundu lumbered closer and as the swooping evil took off with a final hiss a giant paw landed on Grindelwald’s chest and knocked him to the ground. He was firmly pinned.

“What? How?” he cried in outrage as his wand flew in a smooth arc towards Newt. Aurors began to swarm from around the beach, wands drawn but wasted in the face of a nundu’s paw on him, there was no way Grindelwald could escape.

“It was quite simple really. You have a disappointingly predictable routine,” Newt almost drawled. “It was a simple matter of figuring out what you wanted, finding the perfect location to trap you and the means of luring you in. Does the process sound familiar?”

Grindelwald wanted to rage but the nundu growled, its breath lingered over him reeking of who knew what.

“You wanted me. So I came to this secluded spot to give you the opportunity. But your methods were stuck in a rut, you needed to dramatically ensnare me with a nundu. Just where, Mr. Grindelwald, did you think you got an easy to manage nundu with superficial wounds and a bad case of laziness?”

Realisation dawned on Grindelwald then. He’d been played. The nundu was already Newt’s and was merely playing a part. The aurors gathered in a nervous semicircle around the nundu but kept their distance. If Grindelwald craned his neck he could just about make out a vaguely familiar figure hobbling closer. Newt offered the man an arm and they stood in the middle of the aurors.

“Bess present,” Newt ordered. The world tilted as Grindelwald was lifted by the scruff of his clothes and not too gently laid at Newt and Percival’s feet by the proud nundu. She was given some kind of treat for her work while Percival stared down at Grindelwald. Nobody said anything for a moment before Newt sighed.

“Cuff him,” he said. Percival looked up at him with wide eyes.

“I still think Bess is an awful name for a nundu,” he argued.

“I’ll let you name the next one,” Newt patted his cheek patronisingly.

“There is no next one! You can’t even get a permit for one let alone too,” Percival admonished him.

“Just as well you’re the director of magical security and you love me then,” there was a sing-song tone to Newt’s voice. Grindelwald stared after them as they slowly walked off bickering about permits and nundus. It wasn’t fair. He was going to liberate the wizarding world and these two fools not only thwarted him but didn’t even deign to monologue at him like Grindelwald would have afforded his more prized prisoners. The cuffs clinked around his wrists and Grindelwald pouted.

**Author's Note:**

> Slowly working my way through prompts from tumblr. Got one in mind? Send it to @ladyoftheshrimp


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